In a dramatic and surprising move DivX, Inc. just announced that they will be closing down their online video site, Stage6. Since its start Stage6 has been one of the most popular choices for online video with a focus on high quality, including HD, content. The site highlighted the technology that has made DivX a success, but after exploring options to either sell the site or turn it into a separate organization it was ultimately decided that Stage6 would have to be closed down.

Stage6’s focus on delivering the highest possible quality video is what made it so popular but it also seems to be a major reason why the site is being shut down. The company has yet to make an official statement, but at Stage6.com traffic is being directed to a blog entry that makes an attempt to explain what is going on. Much is left unsaid, but it is noted that Stage6 has been extremely expensive to operate and it requires more resources than DivX is able to provide. The site will go dark on February 28th and the content uploading feature has already been turned off.

While it is clear that the bandwidth and storage costs for Stage6 must be tremendous, shutting down the site completely is a drastic move. Stage6 has a vast collection of high quality content as well as a large and dedicated community behind it. Nothing was said about piracy in the blog post but this is clearly a factor as Stage6 had fewer upload limitations than most sites and was able to deliver HD content to visitors. The combination of these with the DivX video codec and player made it an ideal place to distribute pirated movies.